01 January 2008

Under the wire

My last FO of the year slid in under the wire at 10:50ish last night.

Baby Bib O' Love for Terry's baby girl. It was made to distract her from the fact that I have not yet finished the blanket I've promised her. I'm not sure if it worked. I am making a larger version of the lovey I knit for Em, close to a full blanket size. It has been an easy and comforting knit--except that I ran out of yarn. After calling a variety of stores locally AND in South Carolina, I finally stumbled upon one that actually offered to order some for me. It's a new yarn store for me, Yarn Garden. It's only about 20 minutes from me, and may possibly become a replacement LYS for the local one that went out of business. The 20% student discount is a powerful motivator.

In an effort to dodge the end-of-year wrap up that so many bloggers do, I'm entertaining myself with a contest from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I chose to enter option 1:

Post a picture of your recipe box (binder, drawer, whatever) on your blog if you have one. Also post one recipe from the box. Then, post a comment to this post containing a link to your blog entry, so that I can find you and link to your recipe box. (Let's review: post on your blog, comment on our blog with a link.) TIDYING UP YOUR BOX IS CHEATING.

Here's my box:

I didn't tidy a thing up, including the shelf it sits on. Or dust, for that matter.

I bought my box in the mid '90's as a (too) young matron. I was living in Texas and working at a craft mall at the time with stalls of handmade items at my fingertips. The woman who painted this box was highly in demand. Her items, no matter how large or small, sold out within a few days of restocking. I admit to having more than a few of her pieces, though my style has changed considerably from those country-loving days.

The recipes in the box are a time-capsule of my life during that period. I was experimenting with cooking and with my role as wife. There are recipes clipped from magazines, recipes quickly scribbled as co-workers recited them, recipes won in Tupperware party games. The marriage didn't last, but the recipe box did.

There are as many recipes for Coca-Cola Cake as there are big-haired women in Texas, and I've never found the perfect match to this one to fill in the pieces. I made it a number of times before it was lost, with varying degrees of success. It's a bear to make, but so rich and so filling that it's totally worth the work. I miss it some days.

I'll share this one, then, in honor of the New Year. It is a Southern tradition to make black-eyed peas for luck. There is little else in this world that goes with them then a fine cornbread:

Hey, I remember that Coke Cake. As I recall, mine never got frosted properly and grew an unnatural-looking fuzz instead. Now I know why! I do still have a snapshot of the upside down cake in our garbage bin somewhere...Ahhh, memories.

About Me

Once upon a time a story was told to a little girl about how an ugly ugly duckling turns into an awfuly pretty swan. Though the little girl was quite enchanted with this, she promptly forgot it for many years.

Not knowing how nasty swans can really be, this girl's momma named her now 23 year-old akward and freshly divorced daughter "cygnet," to show that beautiful swanness was just around some near corner.

Nine years later, this now-grown daughter rethinks the wisdom of this, as a grumpy swan currently attacks all her windows, leaving scared kitties and depositing lots of swan poo in its wake.